Education: E PIuribus Confusion

It's textbook time again. In the next few weeks millions of American
schoolchildren will be confronted by thick history books with uplifting
names like Rise of the American Nation or The Free and the Brave.

For most students the book will represent their main chance of learning
about U.S. history. For their middle-aged parents, such titles bring
back memories of George Washington with an inked-in mustache, and their
own introduction to a unified, changeless heritage: a view of America
shaped by its great men, sealed against doubt,...